School complex Luberzen, Dietikon Project competition with MOSAIK in 1st place

The Luberzen school facility, built in 1971, is in urgent need of renovation. The city plans to expand and modernize it for future school and childcare purposes. After the renovation, the school will have 4 kindergarten classes, 16 primary school classes and 18 secondary school classes. In addition, there will be a cafeteria, library, triple gymnasium and teaching swimming pool. About 800 students aged 4 to 16 will be taught by about 90 teachers and support staff.

To initiate the project, an anonymous competition was held for architects, landscape architects and civil engineers. Out of 51 applications, 15 teams were selected to submit proposals. In the final selection, the MOSAIK project was unanimously declared the winner.

The MOSAIK project is characterized by good integration into the neighborhood. Existing building units are extended with wooden modules. In addition, there are two new buildings: the community wing on Schöneggstrasse and the sports building in the southern part of the triangular plot. The project is financially and ecologically convincing, as it integrates the existing building stock in a resource-saving manner and ecologically supplements additional space with wood. Despite smaller floor areas, the space program is convincing from an organizational and operational point of view. Like a MOSAIC, both the building structures with the intervening outdoor spaces are arranged on the school site, as well as the offset classrooms in the classroom wings.

^© Photos VPA ARCHITEKTUR / Flooer

The extensions and new buildings on the school site are all planned to be made of wood. The use of wood is suitable for long-lasting structures in many areas. This is evidenced by the existence of hundreds of years old wooden buildings around the world. Examples are the historic stave churches in Norway or the old bridges in the Emmental. As the only renewable natural resource, wood remains a sought-after building material in today's world, and is particularly well suited for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient buildings. In multi-story building construction, the use of wood has become increasingly popular due to new technologies and standardizations as well as growing environmental awareness.

Wood is characterized by an excellent environmental balance. Due to its cell structure, it additionally offers good thermal insulation and is ideally suited for sustainable construction. Another decisive advantage is the short construction time possible with timber construction. The millimeter-precise prefabrication of the wooden elements in the factory enables fast and high-quality assembly on site.

Due to the detailed design and a layered construction of ceilings and walls in timber construction, an efficient system separation is possible. This facilitates redesigns and conversions of existing space and also makes deconstruction easier and more cost-effective compared to solid construction. Especially in educational buildings, flexible, changeable space is very advantageous.

An additional and decisive advantage of timber construction is its lower weight compared to reinforced concrete construction. As a result, extensions and additions to buildings can be implemented more easily and comprehensively.

^© Photos VPA ARCHITEKTUR / Flooer

The new community center to be created will be built over an existing underground shelter, which serves as the basis here. Here, the support structure is directly aligned with the support axes of the shelter to efficiently transfer loads.

The structural design includes a uniformly articulated column-braced system that uses stairwell cores in solid construction for stabilization. Radiation protection is provided by a recycled concrete floor slab.

The addition is based on a 2022 feasibility study and adds three stories of wood construction to the shelter, even though the study called for only two stories of solid construction. The additional floor is offset by the lighter construction.